The court affirms in part and reverses in part a district court decision upholding U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) regulations that govern damage to land, structures, and certain water supplies caused by mining subsidence. The court first holds that a regulation establishing a rebuttable presu...

The court affirms the dismissal of a land trust's action alleging that a coal company that owned the mineral rights to a tract of the trust's land violated the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) and other federal and state laws. The trust alleged that the company's failure to comply ...

The court upholds some provisions and strikes down other provisions of an Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) interim final rule that required a surface mining permit applicant to disclose all environmental violations it incurred at its mining operations. The court first holds...

The court holds that the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement's (OSM's) denial of a surface mining permit to a company was not a taking. The company's mining plan would invade the rock strata overlying an aquifer that supplies a local community with drinking water. The court first ho...

The court holds that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) practice of overfiling in those states where it has authorized state enforcement of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) oversteps the Agency's authority under the Act. EPA initiated a RCRA enforcement action agains...

The court holds that it lacks jurisdiction to review a mining corporation's Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) claims arising from a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) document addressing whether certain mining processes produced hazardous waste. The document discussed the rare ea...